Less is more for Monroe County under the legislative redistricting plan that won final approval Wednesday from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

More as in more clout.

One of the two state Senate seats encompassing parts of the county under the new maps has a majority of Monroe County residents in it. The three designated state House seats also have Monroe County majorities.

"Monroe County is one of the big winners," said state Rep. Mario Scavello, R-176. "When you have that type of unified effort on the issues, you can begin to throw your weight around."

The current alignment has six senators representing tiny portions of Monroe County, none with anything approaching a majority of Monroe residents.

Monroe County has a four-member House delegation, two of those districts split between Pike and Luzerne counties.

All but three of Monroe County's 20 municipalities will be placed in the 40th Senate District for the November 2014 general election. That district was moved from slow-growing Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh, to account for rapid Monroe County population growth the last decade.

Slightly more than half the residents in the new 40th District are in Monroe County, with the rest in northern Northampton County, including the Slate Belt.

Coolbaugh, Price and Barrett townships are left outside the new district, and will be part of the Lackawanna County-based 22nd District, currently represented by Democratic Sen. John Blake.

Blake already represents Coolbaugh and Barrett, but will lose Paradise and Mount Pocono to the new majority Monroe County Senate seat.

Blake said he is "a little disappointed" with the new Senate map statewide, but believes his new district is "relatively contiguous" with a common interest among constituents.

The new redistricting plan — developed by a committee of legislative leaders and a retired appeals court judge — was approved last summer. But the state's high court didn't rule on challenges to the plan until Wednesday.

The Supreme Court rejected a previous plan, ironically, on grounds it contained too many splits of political subdivisions, including municipalities and counties. That plan, though, had placed all of Monroe County in a single Senate seat, rather than the county split under the revision.

Scavello announced his candidacy for state Senate under the rejected plan, and said he is leaning in favor of running next year under the new Senate boundary. He will discuss the matter with family and his "support team" before making it official.

A House seat also is being moved into Monroe County — the 115th — from slower growing Lackawanna County. It will include Coolbaugh, Paradise and Price townships, six of Stroud Township's seven precincts, East Stroudsburg and Stroudsburg.

Scavello's 176th District will be realigned and encompass Chestnuthill, Eldred, Jackson, Pocono, Polk, Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock townships and Mount Pocono.

Democratic Rep. Mike Carroll's 118th House District will be moved entirely out of Monroe County and based in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. Carroll said he has consistently spoken out against the current Monroe County legislative boundaries. He is pleased for Monroe with the changes.

"On balance, it is a much better representation of shared interests in Monroe County," Carroll said. "There was nobody who was able to defend the maps that were drawn in 2001."

The 139th House District of Republican Mike Peifer, which currently includes Monroe's Barrett and Price townships, will be entirely in Pike and Wayne counties under the new plan.